Newsletter: 140 for April 2008 Dave welcomed everyone along this evening and it was especially good to see some faces (old and new) from the Sussex Magic Circle. Reg Maskell had been extremely ill over the past few months and Bob had been keeping a very close eye on him and helping Margaret where he could. Great friendship is a brilliant thing. Bob had bought a card with him this evening and asked everyone to sign it so he could drop it round in the morning to Reg. Nicky and Martin had re-booked Halland Forge for this year’s Annual Dinner and this would be on 18 October. A cabaret had been approached and we were delighted to let everyone know that this was an award winning act never seen at ACES (or indeed any of the Sussex clubs!) before. Full details would be available at the AGM in July. Ticket prices would again be £30 a person and everyone was urged to invite family and friends. Stan advised us that the next meeting on 7 May for Southdowns would be a lecture with Mark Shortland and that from 4 June with Made to Measure Magic, they would be moving to Handcross Parish Hall. Dave would have no excuse to get to meetings now! Everyone was reminded that May’s meeting would be The Tony Richards Competition for stage and children’s magic. Please can we have as many competitors as possible take part as it was great for the close-up. Please bring family and friends to watch as members seem to perform better to an audience – funny that … Nicky also asked everyone to be thinking of categories for June’s Tri-Wizard competition with the Sussex and Southdowns. We have heard that they will both be pulling out all the stops this year. So on with this evening and the monthly Challenge Competition this month was “Crisps”. That’s the sort of old school ACES challenge we like. Mike E. was up first with various flavours of crisps in envelopes and gave Nicky the choice. Following elimination with Gordon, a final flavour was chosen and appeared wrong but when tasted the flavour was the same as the chosen flavour in the envelope. Well done Mike, we all love Pringles so everyone was delighted to share these during the break. David C. borrowed a 50p from the merry throng and got Lynn and Brenda to initial it. Following a very slick vanish and the help of some magic crisp dust (!) and then the disappearance of an entire bag of crisps, the signed coin appeared in a sealed bag of crisps. Excellent stuff David, probably the magic crisp dust was the most important thing here … Traditionally here at ACES things would be close and tonight’s competition was definitely not going to be any different. We would see later what transpired. After all the fun of the snack attack, Dave introduced tonight’s lecturer who really needs little introduction. Most people at tonight’s meeting would know Mark Leveridge and with a few chosen words taken from Magicseen’s website about him, the lecture was announced. Mark explained that his lecture is one of a 2/3rds and a 1/3rd with a longer first half. To go through in detail all of the effects and discussions that Mark shared with us would take many, many pages. Martin had been asked to choose 8 of a possible list for this Pick’n’Mix lecture which he felt would be most appropriate for our members. It is therefore appropriate to list those shown effects to nudge people’s memories:- 1. Signature Piece 2. Mate Weight 3. Gnashers 4. Preview – this was a Carl Forbes effect 5. Simplex Hopping Halves 6. Copy Ring 7. Name Dropper 8. Skint Mark had bought many of these routines with him tonight to sell. He is a very professional performer and lecturer and gave great detail to each of the routines he shared. I think he probably did very well out of the members on his stand this evening. After the break and money changing hands (and in some cases disappearing or even changing colour!) the Challenge winner was announced as David. After some encouragement, Robbie stepped up to challenge Newspaper for next month – we don’t want any torn and restored versions please. Something more original would be good! Brenda and Lynn kindly did the washing up and were thanked by Dave. Second half and Mark showed us some of his new season releases. Again to go into these in detail would need a great deal of magical terminology so a list is the best idea:- 1. Walkabout coins routine 2. Horizontal card rise 3. Forever Flapping 4. Jumbo Animal Antics 5. Ultimate Ripped So many routines, so much magic and a great lecturer, the consensus was definitely 10 out of 10. We thoroughly enjoyed your company tonight Mark, many thanks. He also gave a push for Magicseen – the magazine edited by him and specifically designed for the British market. Magic Singh is the cover star for issue 20. Always a very good read. Check out both his websites at www.magicseen.co.uk and www.markleveridge.co.uk. With so much going on, the meeting finished a little late at 10.15pm. Post meeting It was with enormous regret that we heard just after April’s meeting of the very sad loss of Reg Maskell. In fact he died on the Thursday immediately following ACES. Reg was our rhyming magician who was always smiling. A man who enjoyed his tennis and had many friends, I remember the first time I saw Reg perform doing the warm-up at the Annual Dinner a few years ago which was beautifully done – linking rings and a rhyme or two. Many members and friends attended his funeral and Martin and I were sorry to be unable to attend. Flowers and our love were sent to Margaret and her family at this horrible time. And if that wasn’t enough, we heard just last night that after all the support Bob Rickard had given to Reg, he too had died very suddenly. Bob loved his magic and loved to handcraft much of what he performed. Close friends with Lynn Thomas and the late Tom Hooper, many a magical afternoon was whiled away together. Bob too will be solely missed. Over the past months, John Holden had become very close to Bob and I know he used to drop around to John’s shop for a cuppa and a magical chat. John will miss those special friendship times and the magical support and coaching freely given. We may never have met Pierre and the enthusiasm of John’s performances had it not been for Bob. Such a dreadful month and we send our best regards to both Reg’s and Bob’s families and they should know the admiration all here held for these two gentlemen of magic. We will miss them both dreadfully. Written by: Nicky Lewis |
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